Letters from Section 17: A Collection of Morningside Essays

Patricia A. Myers is a historian at the Historic Sites and Archives
Service, Alberta Community Development, and the author of Sky Riders: An
Illustrated History of Aviation in Alberta, 1906–1945.

Fred McGuinness has spent his life writing. He has written for several
daily newspapers, for the CBC, and for Reader’s Digest. When
retirement loomed, instead of purchasing golf clubs or gardening
trowels, McGuinness and his wife moved to an evergreen
plantation—Section 17—in Manitoba. McGuinness’s commentary on
rural life, as well as on his adventures throughout his career, became a
regular segment on Peter Gzowski’s Morningside.

In this collection of his Morningside pieces, McGuinness reflects on
everything from boyhood incidents, to the importance of radio, to his
love for the prairie countryside. The pieces are short (most are two or
three pages), and some are better than others. (Standouts include
“Horse Country,” a marvelous account of Gail Campbell’s home-grown
publication of that name, and the evocative “Report from Christmas
Tree Farm.”) Letters from Section 17 is a pleasant collection that
will reunite Morningside listeners with an old friend.